Rac, this chapter gave beautiful closure to Clark's long, painful years on New Krypton. But you didn't just give closure to Clark, but to many others as well.
There's Talan. Maybe what you gave her wasn't exactly closure, but I think you gave her a way to go on. I liked this:
"I have to do my job. And whatever my personal feelings, I'm not going to use them as an excuse to run away." She knew how stubborn she sounded, but she also knew that she wasn't wrong.
Yes, it is going to be painful for her to see Clark one more time, but Talan has a job to do, and she knows how to do it well. She has to keep on doing it.
"Sir…"
He held up his hand, seemingly pleading with her to let him finish. "The things I said, they were unforgivable and they weren't true." She could hear a waver in his voice as he spoke.
"All is forgotten, sir," she replied softly.
He shook his head with a sad smile. "You always say that. You don't just forgive, you forget. You've been one of the greatest friends I've ever had. You were with me in every fight; you've saved my life I don't know how many times."
She looked into his dark brown eyes, glimmering with tears he would never let fall. And all she could see was the man in the wreckage of Silban, in the cold, dark pit of a collapsed building, holding a little boy in his arms, comforting a crying child. He would always be that man to her. A man who'd risked his life time and again for others, who had risked his life to save hers. "It's what friends do," she demurred.
"I'm going to miss you," he whispered harshly.
She closed her eyes as she pulled him into a fierce embrace. He hugged her back just as tightly. "I'm going to miss you, too," she whispered. How did you say goodbye to the man who'd saved your soul?
This isn't closure, but I love that she hugs him. And I'm so glad that he thanked her in such a heartfelt way. He really needed to do it.
"You're a good man, Clark," she said, finding the sound of his Earth name so odd to her ears, but he smiled so genuinely when she said it. "The best man I've ever known." She tried to ignore how much it hurt, but she was saying goodbye to him. She would never see him again and her only consolation was that she only needed to get through one more day of talking with him and being near him and pretending she wasn't in love with him.
Not even this is closure for Talan. But she calls him Clark, she calls him the best man she has ever known, and she admits to herself that she is saying good-bye to him. Maybe it is the best closure she could hope for.
Clark turned to look at her. "Commander," he started, not sure what it was he wanted to say. He didn't know if there were words that could make sense of what it was he wanted her to know.
She gave him a tremulous smile. "May you know great joy and may all your burdens be easily borne. And may fortune be with you all the days of your life, sir." Talan closed her sharp gray eyes and bowed deeply.
"Thank you," he said quietly, feeling tears prick at his eyes. "It's not enough; I just don't know what else to say."
"I know exactly what you mean, sir."
And finally, there is this exchange between Clark and Talan, an acknowledgement that there is so much more loyalty and gratitude and fondness and deep feelings between them than they can, or dare to, express.
I was moved by how you described Lok Sim's selflessness, modesty, general concern for others and love for his family. He feared that the inquest would find that he had been so derelict in his duties that they would demote him or kick him out of the service altogether. Instead he was cited for valor. I loved how this extremely good man couldn't believe that anyone would praise him for doing
well when he hadn't been able to stop Sur Ahn, but how utterly relieved he was:
Outside the chamber, he leaned against the corridor wall and closed his eyes. Relief crashed over him in waves, but his heart still pounded against his chest. He could hear it echoing in his ears. Swallowing around the lump lodged in his throat, he opened his eyes and exhaled a shaky breath.
Then he went to see Sur Ahn, not because he hated her, but because he was worried about her:
"I want to know why," he began. "Why didn't you say anything in your defense?"
"That's odd. I thought you were going to ask why I did it," she replied with a humorless smile. She looked pale and thin. He doubted she'd eaten in days.
"I already know why you did it," he said, folding his arms uncomfortably across his broad chest.
This is beautiful. Lok Sim has accepted that Sur Ahn did what she did for her husband's sake. You showed us in a previous chapter that Lok Sim might have been capable of doing - not necessarily the same thing, but at any rate something evil - in order to save Enza and Thia. I love how he doesn't judge her, but wants to help her.
But Sur Ahn is not asking for mercy or sympathy:
"My Leov was a good man. If he'd known what I was doing, he would have begged me to stop. He would have rather died. But this stopped being about Leov's pain at some point and became about mine. I would have done anything to spare his life, even if it would have made him hate me. It doesn't matter now, though. I knew the consequences of my actions. I'm ready to bear them." Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears.
He shook his head. "But exile…you'll never see your family again…"
"I don't want them to see me like this. I've done something unspeakable. I let myself become a monster. It's better that this world just forget me."
This is so sad. Yes, Sur Ahn was guilty of a horrible deed. But I think that the punishment that her society has imposed on her, and the hopeless guilt she is feeling herself, is probably as harsh a punishment as she could get.
"You are a good man and I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I wish you could have stopped me."
Lok Sim bit his lip and nodded grimly. "So do I."
"I know what you're thinking, Lieutenant. I didn't make any mistakes. I left no trail. I had four long, empty years to do nothing but plan this. There was nothing you could have done."
I think Sur Ahn did whatever she could do for Lok sim, when she told him that he couldn't have stopped her. It wasn't his fault that she could do what she did.
And after that, he returned to Enza and Thia:
He pulled Thia closer to him. "I love you both so much," he said. Nothing else mattered to him. Nothing else was truer.
Thia wrapped her arms around him. "I love you, too, Lok Sim."
"We both do," Enza replied.
I realize that after Clark has returned to the Earth, we may not see anything more of Lok Sim, Enza and Thia, or your other Kryptonian characters. But like Terry, I choose to believe that Lok Sim and Enza's named their first child after Clark. (Thank you for the birthday greetings, Terry!)
Another Kryptonian couple that found closure and happiness were Zara and Ching. They so, so deserved to finally get married, so that they could show their love and happiness to their world.
Clark himself got to say things he needed to say to Talan, and to himself:
"You were right, you know," he said softly. "I lost sight of who I was. I'm not the man I should be."
Talan bit her lip. "That's not true and I shouldn't have said it."
"I needed to hear it," he replied. "I would have become a monster if it hadn't been for you. I would have killed him a long time ago if you hadn't stopped me."
She stepped back and took his hands in hers, ignoring the pang that sliced through her from the gesture. "I didn't stop you," she said. "You stopped yourself."
"No," he replied stridently, shaking his head. "You stopped me, you pulled me back, I would have killed him."
She gave him a tight lipped smile and watched as the hard expression on his face softened. "Sir, I might be tall, but you're a lot bigger and stronger than I am. I wouldn't have been able to stop you if you'd really wanted to do it."
Clark needed to say this, and he needed to hear Talan's answer.
"Thank you," Clark replied.
Tao Scion gave him a wavering smile, his blue eyes glimmering with unshed tears. "Safe travels, my friend," he whispered hoarsely. "Jor El and Lara would be so proud of you."
Clark blinked back stinging tears as he nodded. "May fortune be with you," Clark said as he hugged his old friend.
I was moved by this short exchange between Clark and Tao Scion.
And Clark said good-bye to Lok Sim and Enza and Thia, and to Ching and Zara. He accepted the thanks from (more or less) the entire Kryptonian society, and was embarrassed when everybody kneeled before him. And then he boarded his capsule to embark on his journey home.
At home, Lois is waiting for him, her endurance, courage and perseverance worn thin:
"Perry, I can't do this any more. I'm running on empty and I don't even know where the finish line is. I work better to a deadline, you know?" She was choking back a sob now. Lois wiped at the tears with both hands, feeling Perry's arm come around her shoulder as he sat down beside her.
"Come here, darlin'," he said.
"Just tell me how much longer I have to do this. Another year, five years, I'll wait as long as it takes. I just need to know how much longer it's going to be. I need to know he's coming home." Her body shook as she wept, not sure where this tidal wave of emotions had come from.
Perry held her tightly. "It's okay, honey. Everything's going to be all right."
"Tell me he's coming home," she whispered.
"He is. I know he is. Because that boy loves you more than anything and there is nothing that can keep him away from you. He crossed the universe once to be with you. He'll do it again."
I was teary-eyed at this, too. But Clark
is coming back. But what will happen when he does? Clark and Lois have been apart for so long. Once they knew each other so well. They shared each other's lives, more or less, and knew much of what the other was going through. But this - this is like Odysseus returning to Penelope after twenty years. Their paths have diverged. They have walked their roads alone. Beloved Swedish poet Karin Boye wrote (this is my own tentative translation): There is a reason, a final destination waiting for us at the end of our days. But it was the roads we walked that were worth the price we paid, that were worth our toil and tears.
Now that Clark and Lois have walked different roads, can they reconnect? Can they learn to understand and love the spouse who was scarred and bent into a different shape on the respective lonely roads they walked?
Ann
P.S. Tank, in real life there would be no way that Clark and Lois could ever meet again if Clark had travelled to another planet light-years away, and then had travelled back to the Earth again. The laws of physics governing spacetime don't permit Clark to return to Lois's time frame after such a two-way trip across the gulf of space. Then again... the laws of physics certainly don't allow Clark to fly, either, and yet he does, or at least he did... And Lois still does, and she isn't allowed to, either! If we accept that Clark and/or Lois can fly, then let's accept that Clark can travel across the light-years to New Krypton and still return to Lois's time on the Earth afterwards.
